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Stewart Faces Big Field At Fort Wayne

Tony Stewart has won four of the last six ?Rumble in Fort Wayne? USAC Midget races. He?ll try to add two more this weekend when the 10th annual event unfolds Friday and Saturday at the Memorial Coliseum Expo Center in Fort Wayne, Ind. The track is located adjacent to the site of USAC?s first-ever race, held in January of 1956.

Stewart will again pilot his famed ?Our Gang Poker Club? munchkin in pursuit of his fourth and fifth consecutive Fort Wayne wins. A feature victory would give Stewart at least one USAC victory in each of the last 16 seasons since 1992, except for 1999.

A 60-lap Midget feature caps each night?s activity at the indoor oval, marking the 164th and 165th USAC events held under a roof. The late Rich Vogler was the winningest USAC indoor driver ever, with 10 feature triumphs, while Sleepy Tripp recorded nine and Gary Bettenhausen eight.

The expanding Fort Wayne field already includes former ?Rumble? champions Dave Darland (2004), Mike Fedorcak (2002) and Tony Elliott (1998-99), 2007 USAC Kenyon Midget Champion Kyle Hamilton, former ?Turkey Night Grand Prix? Champ Billy Wease, spectacular John Heydenreich and recent Florida Sprint Car phenom and USAC Kenyon graduate Jacob Wilson, not to mention the greatest Midget driver of all time ? Mel Kenyon, winner of six indoor races himself.

Don?t forget the ladies, either. Pennsylvania?s Ginny Quinones and Jessica Iannuzzi and Mitchell, Ind.?s Arin McIntosh are in the field. Quinones joined the short list of female USAC feature winners last April in a Northeast Ford Focus race at Waterford, Conn.

Winged 600 cc Midgets, Go Karts, Slingshots, Quarter Midgets and Junior Sprints are also competing during the ?Rumble,? with prelims starting at 1:30 pm each day. Quarter-Midget racing starts at 5:15, followed by an autograph session from 6-6:45. Midget racing starts at 7 pm each night.

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